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The One Alt Everyone Should Have

Creating alts has been like an epidemic these last few weeks. I’ve got a couple, a dwarf shaman that I fully intend to get to level cap one day and some throwaways. Based on my sales of Netherweave Bags, I’m not the only re-roller (if you see one person buy four bags at once, it’s always a new alt. Always).

I want to suggest the one alt that everyone should have, for your consideration: the bank alt.

What is the bank alt?

A bank alt is a character that is either primarily created for the purpose of serving as storage/auction mule/broker, or at least serves as such. You basically park him at the Auction House/bank, and he answers your mail all day long.

Why should I have one?

Convenience. That’s all. You don’t truly need one for most reasons, but it makes things easier. Picture this: you’re leveling in Hyjal, and your bags fill up with random stuff. You sell the gray stuff, but what about the cloth? Or the random crafting bits? Or this BOE blue that dropped off a mob? If you have a bank alt, you mail it all to them and walk away with lighter bags. If you don’t, you sell it to a vendor. Or try to hang onto it til you can get back to a capital and sell it yourself.

Yeah, but, auctions? That’s a lot of work

True! It takes at least, oh, ten minutes every two days. What you do: download an addon like Auctioneer. Set it to load only for the bank alt – you don’t need the memory hogging on other characters. Put stuff you want to sell into your bags. Go to AH. Scan the AH with the addon, let it suggest prices for you. Hit “post”. Come back in 48 hours, collect what didn’t sell and your gold. There’s plenty of guides out there to tell you more, or help you refine a strategy, but honestly, it’s too easy not to do.

I have all the gold I’ll ever need and a moral issue with auction houses

Er, ok. Well, how about more storage? If your bank vault is like mine, it gets cluttered. You can keep the stacks of raw materials you’re saving for later on the bank alt. Or anything else that’s not soulbound. Get an addon like ArkInventory that will let you see what’s in any character’s banks and bags no matter who you’re logged onto and never loose an item again.

Ok, I’m sold! Now what?

The details: a bank alt can be any race/class you want (obviously it needs to be the same faction as the characters it’s working for). Death Knights make really good bank alts for a couple reasons. First, they start off with a set of bags, 12 slotters that you can replace as you need more. Second, they can wear plate, which means they can wear any armor in the game, which means you can make them a really snazzy outfit. Third, they come with an epic mount for fast travel between the mailbox and the bank. Third, they have lots of flight points by default so if you need to move them, or send them to a neutral AH, it’s easy.

On the other hand, you can only have one per server, so if your main is a dk that won’t work. I’m predicting an upswing in Worgen bank alts; between the racial swift-running thing and the super snazzy top hats, they seem like perfect bankers.

Upgrade your bank alt: make a bank guild!

Once you’ve bought all the bank slots, put in bags, and are still low on space, it’s time to create a bank guild. Go to the guild vendor person (ask a capital city guard) and buy a charter. You can assign a name, and can change the name before the guild is finalized. Now get 4 distinct player signatures. If you stand in the busiest city and spam “LF guild signatures, paying 20 gold”, you’ll get three people who’ll do it and one who will sign for free. Now take the charter back to the guy who sold it to you and poof, you’ve got a guild. Hop over to the bank and buy the first tab for 100 gold. 98 slots of storage, ready for you.

Is it really worth it?

Do you have one or more characters with professions at 450 that you plan to level to 85 and level their professions too? Then you have money-making potential. Sell all the raw mats you collect and don’t need. Sell things players need (glyphs, enchants, gem cuts) that you create as you level your profession. Use an addon, spend a few minutes a day, and you will see gold. I promise. That’s what I do to keep our alts in house and home. We’re going into Cataclysm with about a 35,000 gold purse; 2 characters each with 310 speed flying, one pair with epic flight, and one that still needs epic but has the other levels. Our characters all have dual spec, mostly from when it cost 1k gold. We don’t think anything of dumping 500 gold on a new alt’s gear. It’s a comfortable place to be in and while it takes time using my strategy, it is a very sure method, very low risk.

Yes, once you start doing this you’ll probably read goldmaking blogs and try some of those strats. I’ve done that and it works great if you use your head and the right addons. But believe me. Having a bank alt is the first step to a comfortable WoW existence.